Kalki Purana, who actually wrote it?

Question

Before reading this, I just want to mention that I am a Hindu myself and I have the utmost respect for my Hinduism

The document called Kalki Puran does not feel real. It almost feels like a hoax. Please hear me and verify it.

There were many yugas and many avatars of Lord Vishnu until today and even though every god and rishis were aware of this, there was no document stating the exact scenario of the future.

For Example: Imagine if Ramayan was written before Ram took birth. Everyone would have known what is gonna happen in detail. Imagine if Duryodhan knew every single detail of war.

There were prophecies of the 8th son of Mata Devaki but no written documents stating that the 8th son will be tried to kill but escape and grow up in Vrundavan. No future was written.

Not just that but, there are some very disturbing things written like Lord Kalki will kill all the Buddist!? Many times, it is mentioned. As the Kalki Puran is dated back to Gupta Period, when Buddhism was on the rise, Hindus tried to contain the rise of Buddism by writing Kalki Puran portraying that all those who will follow Buddism will be killed by the Lord Kalki.

There are almost no demi-gods or other significant avatars except Kalki. Strong powerful demigods have always been present to aid Lord in his mission.

Another thing is rating females by their bodies, this line clearly signifies that Kalki Puran is written in Kalyuga. There are many many incidents in Kalki Puran where the mentioned woman by their well-rounded and shaped breasts!? Whenever a woman of good quality is mentioned, there is mentioning of well-rounded and well-shaped breasts. At the same time, the good physical body features of women are directly attributed to good nature and good qualities. This will clearly mean that females with a small proportion of body features are inferior in every manner.

These are thoughts of a kaliyugi man -

I believe that as Buddhism was on the rise in the 6th century, and as everyone was converting into Buddhists, some Hindu people feared, and to save Hinduism and to stop people from converting, they wrote Kalki-Purana which says that all Buddhists will be killed in future by Lord Kalki. Also if you do not know, the real document Kalki-Purana on carbon dating, dates back around the 6th century, precisely the time when Buddhism was spreading like wildfire. Even our great king Ashok Samrat also converted to Buddhism. (the Ashok chakra in our flag is named after him) , so it's clear that a Hindu-dominated area will fear the rise of another religion. And some might have written Kalki Purana and said it's written by Veda Vyasa so that people believe everything is written and start fearing Buddhism.

Not only that but the demon Kali escapes in the end and doesn't die and it is shown that the war is over. But it is not mentioned that Kali died, it's mentioned that he escaped, so while countless Buddist is killed by Kalki, the main person - the Kali demon, escapes!

I am sorry to have hurt your feelings but when reading Kalki Puran, I never felt such a great feeling of enlightenment and life lessons that you get when you read any other Hindu holy book.

I do not hate Hinduism or Kalki Purana, I am a Hindu myself and I respect everything

I learned countless life lessons from Mahabharat, and I learned countless lessons from Ramayan but from Kalki Puran, I didn't feel any extraordinary feeling. And that's why I think it's not actually written by Lord Veda Vyasa but by someone else to actually scare Buddhists as it is written in the 6th century.

So, who actually wrote the Kalki-Purana? Please explain.

Kalki Purana: https://cloudup.com/cws97nPY2uD

Answer 1

From the way the question is framed, it seems the answer cannot be answered using a scriptural source, or citations acceptable on this platform. Kindly refer to the H.SE Meta on what sources are acceptable here, here, and here.

The points made by the OP in the question fall under the domain of Indologists and religious studies scholars, and they will be better suited to answer it from those perspectives.

In any case, the orthodox tradition maintains that the Kalki-Purāṇa is not a major purāṇa, but a minor or secondary Purāṇa, i.e. an Upapurāṇa.

This is what the Mahaperiyavar, Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji says -

Chapter 6 - Upa-puranas and Others, Hindu Dharma.

Apart from the 18 major Puranas there are an equal number of Upapurāṇas. Among them are the Vinayaka Purāṇa and the Kalki Purāṇa. There are also, in addition, a number of minor Purāṇa. The Purāṇa that speak of the glory of various months such as the Tula Purāṇa, the Magha Purāṇa and the Vaisakha Purāṇa are parts included into the 18 major Purāṇas or Upa-Purāṇas. There are also what are called Sthala Purāṇas, some of them part of the Purāṇas mentioned above and some existing independently.

So, as per traditional or āchāryas viewpoint, the Kalki-Purāṇa is an Upapurāṇa, and by definition, and traditional beliefs, the authorship of all the purāṇas, be it a major purāṇa or a minor purāṇa, is credited to the Veda-Vyāsa Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana.

So, to answer the title question - Kalki-Purāṇa, who actually wrote it?

The answer is -

• As per the traditional viewpoint, the Kalki-Purāṇa is compiled by Veda-Vyāsa Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana.

However, if I may add, the things you bring forth regarding the Buddhist influence, and the tone of the language used in reference to women, it may be the case, that the manuscripts of Kalki-Purāṇa we presently have with us, might have been adulterated over a period of thousand many years, and interpolations crept in, in this Kali-yuga.

Another important thing that I observed is the lack of the name of the Kalki-Purāṇa in any of the lists found in any Mahā-Purāṇa or other text. For instance, the Matsya-Purāṇa Chapter 53, the Devi Bhāgvatam Purāṇa 1.3, or the Ananda Ramayana - Sarga 8 - Verse 52-55 (Manohar-Kanda), and other texts do not mention the Kalki-Purāṇa in their lists of Upapurāṇas.

In any case, this is just a speculation, for interpolations are almost impossible to prove using traditional & religious inquiry methodologies, and it's not worthwhile to discuss them, as the great Mahaperiyavar says -

Hindu Dharma: General

There is perhaps an element of the imaginary in the Puranas. It is also possible that they contain interpolations. But who is to determine what parts are imaginary and what passages constitute the interpolations? And who is to separate the authentic from the spurious? If each one of us removes what seems interpolatory, nothing will be left of the stories in the end. So it would be better to preserve the Puranas in the form in which they have been handed down to us notwithstanding the apparent errors and distortions.

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To Conclude -

• From the traditional, religious-theological viewpoint, the authorship of the Kalki-Upapurāṇa rests with Veda-Vyāsa Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana.

• It may be the case that the currently extant manuscript of the Kalki-Purāṇa we have with us, might have interpolations and other adulterations but as the great Mahaperiyavar observes that it is not worthwhile to dwell into finding those or ruminating on that facet, but rather gain and focus on the rich spiritual knowledge they teach. If one finds some problems with the text, best to understand it from a qualified guru or āchārya, or otherwise, not make much of it if it seems against one's conscience and sensibilities.

Answer 2

First off it is unlikely to mean Buddhist, as the time frame is simply too far into the future to reasonably be Buddhism like anything we are accustomed to. It's like over 400,000 years into the future.

Also, this world doesn't have the illusion of Atheism like we have for some reason, and people can clearly see the supernatural, such as the giant female Rākṣasa that is pretty hard to miss. Thus Buddhism being anything similar to our version wouldn't make sense to people who are aware of actual supernatural events.

Anyway, the narrator of the Kalki Purāṇa is canonically Sūta. So he is kind of the writer of it.

https://cloudup.com/cws97nPY2uD